Bush Is Stupid!

[BJ]

O.K. I know to the vast majority of DUers this ain't news. But after reading the BuzzFlash.com interview with Molly Ivins http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/03/07/10_ivins.html where she said Bush is ignorant but not stupid I got to wondering.

Doing a Google search for a clinical definition for Stupidity I stumbled across The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity http://www.ecotopia.com/webpress/stupidity/ of Carlo Cipolla late professor of economics and authors of several books on economic history.

Cipolla's "Third (and Golden) Law: states:A stupid person is a person who caused losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.

Seems to me that this defines Dubya's actions, not to mention those of the entire Republican cartel (from freshmen members of Congress up to Karl Rove,)to a tee.

This nation's not being misruled by the merely incompetant, but by the stupid!!

[bookman]

1. Not sure if he fits the definition

It's the no gain part of the definition. The country may derive no gain, but Bush ( and friends ) will gain. ( See Halliburton post )

Although I think many of those who voted for him are stupid. Those losing their jobs and having their IRA's etc. plummeting. Many still don't get it.

[roughsatori]

2. Third Law of Cipolla does not apply to Shrub

He has gained much. As much as I hate him, he helped the Repukes gain both Houses. His family and friends have all gained from his rounds of tax-cuts. He has taxpayers paying the bill for bombing the infrastructure of other countries, and then the US taxpayer pays his, and his administrations, friend's companies to rebuild that infrastructure.

Also, he is being set up, like Raygun was, to be a God by the neo-cons.

Even if his Castle Crumbles today--he and his friends have already gained and looted the coffers that our children will be forced to pay for.

[Brian Sweat]

3. I have read a lot about newspeak lately

and that its main purpose is to narrow thought. Newspeak works to take away words that can be used to express certain thoughts. An excellent example of this is the way that the word "racist" has been taken away from us. Today, someone can only be deemed a racist if they are actively burning crosses on peoples lawns.

I think they are doing the same thing to us with the word stupid. People can only be considered stupid if their intellegence is below an extremely low threshold. Bush is not very intelligent, but because his intellegence is not extremely low, he is not stupid. In my opinion, anyone who lacks intellectual curiousity is stupid. The most important component of intelligence is the desire to know. I think that most Americans lack this desire and that is one of the primary problems with this country.